The anime to choose from are numerous compared to when anime was gaining popularity years ago before it was big, there are now a lot of anime to choose from, but suppose there are those who haven't gotten into it and don't know where to start, they can use this thread as springboard, I start with my list:

- If you're into sword and spell (and don't mind the '90s era animation), I always thought you could do a lot worse than Slayers. It's a bit of a mix of everything with episodes which play the series as a comedy while others go for that direct feel of a regular shonen fantasy series. I've always loved the description "Record of Lodoss War is what your Dungeon Master imagine their D&D campaigns will go. Slayers is what the D&D session inevitably becomes".

- Any of the Mobile Suit Gundam movies are excellent ways to start off learning about giant robots. A little more experimental goes into with Neon Genesis Evangelion territory.

- Dramadies probably has Clannad.

- Mixing slice of life with fantasy gives you the Haruhi series.

- Romantic series always began and end with Maison Ikkoku.

- I've always been shocked by the number of good cyberpunk anime exists. Ghost in the Shell, AKIRA, or Serial Experiments Lain are all great pieces.

- Magical girl series are always tough. You can always fall back on Sailor Moon as a recommendation but it's also got a place in popular culture so people probably have strong opinions on it already. I personally go for Revolutionary Girl Utena because it's really interesting (and honestly, the more I thought about this topic, the more I want to go and watch it again). But on the other hand, there is a literal scene which you can summarize as "person transforms into car"...so...yeah. It's weird.

- Same reasoning goes for why I'd be hard pressed to recommend Dragonball Z if someone wanted something as simple as "I want to watch someone beat up another person".

- Cowboy Bebop pretty much exists between genres, so it gets its own bullet point.

- In the "I don't honestly know, but people keep saying great things about them" list are Steins;Gate and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The latter I've heard is iffy though because it skips through lots of plot from the original series...apparently. Death Note is somewhere on there too.

Anime I certainly wouldn't start off with are those which heavily deal with anime references (ex - Lucky*Star) or anime culture (ex - Welcome to the HNK). I might even argue those which deal with anime tropes (ex - Madoka Magica) aren't great starting points because they deal with audience expectation.

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Ruri's Law: The vast majority of people are idiots (including myself)Shameless Self-Plug - Updated May 30 - A Letter to a Younger Me – Anime Edition

i'd argue madoka might be a good anime to start off with. a lot of people that dont watch anime have the image that it is all about cuteness,
girlyness, childish art style etc. madoka indeed has this art style, however it shows that despite this appearance, the anime can still tell a decent, and in this case, tragic story.

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'Don't be bored at home, but at school. Because for every 60 seconds in which you are bored, you have a minute less to enjoy yourself.'

i'd argue madoka might be a good anime to start off with. a lot of people that dont watch anime have the image that it is all about cuteness,
girlyness, childish art style etc. madoka indeed has this art style, however it shows that despite this appearance, the anime can still tell a decent, and in this case, tragic story.

I can certainly agree where you're coming from. Art not equating to tone of narrative is excellently highlighted in the series. Hell, I have a special spot for Bokurano because it's animated like a typical shonen mecha while the only series I know that's truly as dark and depressing as it is the manga version of Narutaru.

I do feel that the emotional impact and the way the series completely deconstructs an anime driven notion (magical girls) is much stronger if you go in blind but are familiar with how series like Sailor Moon play out. Having the tropes that your magical girl is not going to die and that the "becoming a magical girl" is never really explained just completely and utterly spun on their head has way more impact if you're expecting a typical adventure.

As such, I struggle giving it any level of recommendation as your first exposure. I feel that the emotional payoff is just that much better if you can get yourself familiar with the ground "rules" they want you to have in mind before going forward.

In my mind, it creates the difference "this series is dark" and "this series completely goes out of its way to deconstruct the construct of magical girls in some of the darkest ways possible". The former is good. But the latter is an improvement and I'd want to avoid wasting that opportunity.

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Ruri's Law: The vast majority of people are idiots (including myself)Shameless Self-Plug - Updated May 30 - A Letter to a Younger Me – Anime Edition

I can certainly agree where you're coming from. Art not equating to tone of narrative is excellently highlighted in the series. Hell, I have a special spot for Bokurano because it's animated like a typical shonen mecha while the only series I know that's truly as dark and depressing as it is the manga version of Narutaru.

I do feel that the emotional impact and the way the series completely deconstructs an anime driven notion (magical girls) is much stronger if you go in blind but are familiar with how series like Sailor Moon play out. Having the tropes that your magical girl is not going to die and that the "becoming a magical girl" is never really explained just completely and utterly spun on their head has way more impact if you're expecting a typical adventure.

As such, I struggle giving it any level of recommendation as your first exposure. I feel that the emotional payoff is just that much better if you can get yourself familiar with the ground "rules" they want you to have in mind before going forward.

In my mind, it creates the difference "this series is dark" and "this series completely goes out of its way to deconstruct the construct of magical girls in some of the darkest ways possible". The former is good. But the latter is an improvement and I'd want to avoid wasting that opportunity.

you make an excellent point to be honest. madoka certainly fooled most viewers by taking a spin on the magical girl trope. in my opinion,
the show still is good entertainment by itself, but understanding the genre definitely increases viewer's pleasure.

to be quite honest, i went into madoka not knowing anything about other magical girl shows. moreover, i wasnt familiar with anime at all. it provided me with excellent entertainment. if i knew some more background info on other magical girl animes, madoka might have gone from awesome to masterpiece.

thanks for giving me some insight on the topic, i honestly didnt know about it :)

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'Don't be bored at home, but at school. Because for every 60 seconds in which you are bored, you have a minute less to enjoy yourself.'

It will depend on your tastes of course. A light slice-of-life anime won't really match someone who wants to, say, watch Cowboy Bebop as their anime gateway, like I had.

This is gonna sound very random but........ IGPX. It was Toonami's so far only real anime collaboration (until the FLCL sequel arrives), and thus has more Western elements than most anime. Its story is basic without feeling tired and used, and the action is really good.

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I am a fan of the dub. It was the dub that introduced me to Lucky Star, and is great. Just to let you members know this beforehand.